Archives:Calculating Power: Edwin L Harder and Analog Computing in the Electric Power Industry

From GHN

Abstract

Profile of Edwin L.Harder, power engineer, inventor, builder of the Anacom computer, and former president of the American Federation of Information Processing Societies. Harder addressed many challenging and interesting problems of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s — especially in the regulation and control of power systems. Some of these problems involved the need for additional control as powergrids were interconnected and increased in scale; others concerned the regulation of new power machinery (generators and motors) and systems incorporating them (steel mills, paper mills, and so on). His most important contribution was to the Anacom computer. Although he did not conceive the machine, he made such fundamental contributions to the design and construction of the full-scale version and to the management of its operation for twenty years, there is no question that he was the person who made computing an important activity at Westinghouse.